The auspicious sound of conch shells followed by Sanskrit stotras, invoking blessings of the Gurus, announced the commencement of the fourth Mangalachanarana Sangeet Sammelan at Rabindra Sadan.

This much awaited annual day-long soiree, also dedicated to social causes under the stewardship of renowned musician-couple Apurba and Indrani Mukherjee, began by giving away scholarships to several brilliant but needy
students and felicitating veteran musician Dulal Roy (player and guru of jaltaranga, santoor and flute) and instrument (sarod-sitar-violin et al) maker Nripen Roy.

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The grand finale of the evening turned out to be a captivating recital focused on the salient features of tabla’s Lucknow Gharana by celebrated maestro Swapan Chaudhuri, accompanied by son-disciple Nilan Chaudhuri (tabla) and Pankaj Mishra’s perceptive sarangi.

The traditional peshkaar with characteristic palta-theka, coupled with the deep melodious tone of the tabla acquired a regal quality. Both, the father and son, played kaidas belonging to different gharanas, varied gat, tukra and parans interspersed with energetic padhant.

This was preceded by another equally delightful recital, by vocalist Indrani Mukherjee. Superbly supported by Pandit Sanjay Mukherjee and Vinay Mishra on the tabla and harmonium respectively, she offered a bouquet of soulful Khamaj thumri, nirgun dadra and hori replete with emotive appeal, interesting talfirta and thrilling laggis — that captured the essence of this endearing musical form belonging to Hindi heartland.

Earlier the soiree’s opening artiste, sitar maestro Kartik Seshadri, chose to play the early evening raga Patadeep around 2pm and followed it up with Mallikapriya, his own creation. Arup Chatterjee’s brilliant support on the tabla added extra lustre. A young and extremely popular Kathak virtuoso Vishal Krishna mesmerised all with his brilliant performance.

His instantly created energetic replies to the vociferous tabla of Biplab Bhattacharya were very impressive examples of Kathak’s khula character that ventures out of the pre-composed items. Shubhankar Dey (vocal) and Rohan Naidu (violin), two young disciples of Pandit Devashish Dey, offered a matured duet-recital based on raga Madhuwanti (slow ektal, medium teental, fast teental tarana) and a Hori-dadra, flanked by two tabla accompanists Mihir Kundu and Rupak Mitra. The latter stood out for his innovative solo-round.

To Ma

For a decade now, tabla exponent Hindole Majumdar has been offering annual tributes to his departed mother Sunanda Majumdar, who inspired him to move ahead on his path as a musician. This year the loving ritual, held in the prestigious Vivekananda Hall of Ramakrishna Mission Golpark, featured Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya in the final slot of the first evening.

The Chaturangui slide guitar maestro, with Majumdar as his accompanist, played raga Maru Bihag (alaap-jod-jhala, gatkaris in rupak and teental) in his usual style that blends emotion and skill in equal measures.

The evening started with a fascinating tabla solo in teental by Shiv Shankar Ray, a worthy disciple of Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. Vijay Mishra’s sarangi accompaniment added to the beauty of this recital.

The second evening began with a beautiful khayal recital in raga Bhimpalasi by Suman Ghosh, a senior disciple of Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj. He concluded with bhajans, ably supported by Jyotirmay Roychowdhury (tabla) and Anirban Chakrabarty (harmonium).

Finally, sitarist Indrajit Banerjee, a worthy disciple of Pandit Kartick Kumar, played raga Shyam Kalyan replete with elaborate alap-jod-jhala and slow and fast gatkaris in teental. With Hindole Majumdar’s passion-driven tabla support he also played a Pilu dhun.

In Memoriam

Ustad Umar Khan Sangeet Sabha organised a musical at Sandre Hall, Calcutta School of Music recently to mark the 36th death anniversary of Ustad Umar Khan, the late sarod maestro belonging to the Lucknow Gharana. His worthy son Irfan Muhammad Khan is striving to carry the tradition ahead.

As the final artiste of the event, the sarod exponent played raga Chayanat with Ilmas Hussain Khan’s tabla as his ally and concluded with a dhun in Gara. Earlier his students commenced the evening with brief pieces in ragas Khamaj, Yaman, Basant and folk tunes based on ragas Pilu and Misra Yaman.

This was followed by a vocal rendition by Nabhodeep Chakraborty. Accompanied by Keshab Banerjee’s harmonium and Rahul Ganguly’s tabla, he sang raga Jog (vilambit ektal and drut teental) in the true Patiala style showcasing palta based sargam taans and powerful akar taans.

With a lovely Adana composition of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, set to drut ektal, and a Pahadi dadra he concluded. Ustad Ilmas Hussain Khan, son of the legendary tabla maestro Ustad Afaq Hussain, played a tabla-solo in teental with Keshab Banerjee playing naghma on the harmonium. He presented many age old compositions of the Lucknow style that are rarely heard now.